Monday, July 9, 2012

WHAT SENATORS GOT PAID OFF TO SUPPORT S.510

TOTALITARIANISM AT ITS BEST!  THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN!  THIS WOULD GIVE WASHINGTON ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE: OUR FINANCES, OUR HEALTHCARE, OUR WEAPONS, OUR EDUCATION AND NOW OUR ABILITY TO SURVIVE!
Political Vel Craft Veil Of Politics

WHAT SENATORS GOT PAID OFF TO SUPPORT S.510 – THE ‘FOOD AUSTERITY ACT’

July 9, 2012 by Volubrjotr 0 Comments
The following is a list of U.S Senators and the Bribes (I mean campaign contributions) that these Senators received from Special Interest Groups to either support or oppose S.510 – The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act. I have listed the names of the Senators, the Party and State, and the amount of Special Interest Bribes (I mean campaign contributions) that they received:
BREAKING => Senate Bill S 510 Food Safety Modernization Act vote imminent: Cannot Eat Nor Grow Food In The British Monarchy’s Earthly Garden!

Name of Senator – Party & State – Bribe For S.510 or Bribe Against S.510

Daniel Akaka – D HI – Bribe For: $27,690 – Against: $700
Lamar Alexander – R TN – Bribe For: $190,421 – Against: $4,850
John Barrasso – R WY – For: $31,350 – Against: $27,500
Max Baucus – D MT – Bribe for: $123,803 – Against: $55,980
Evan Bayh – D IN – Bribe For: $45,200 – Against: 8,250
Mark Begich - D AK - Bribe For: $23,050 – Against: $2,000
Michael Bennet – D CO – Bribe For: $38,509 – Against: $22,050
Robert Bennett – R UT – Bribe For: $105,530 – Against: $10,000
Jeff Bingaman – D NM – Bribe For: $31,498 – Against: $8,450
Christopher Bond – R MO – Bribe For: $49,550 – Against: $5,200
Barbara Boxer – D CA – Bribe For: $120,000 – Against: $13,650
Sherrod Brown – D OH – Bribe For: $57,800 – Against: $6,600
Samuel Brownback – R KS – Bribe For: $20,950 – Against: $13,500
Jim Bunning - R KY - Bribe For: $20,700 – Against: $2,000
Richard Burr – R NC – Bribe For: $328,086 – Against: $32,292
Roland Burris – D IL – Bribe For: $0 – Against: $0
Maria Cantwell – D WA – Bribe For: $93,541 – Against: $2,750
Benjamin Cardin – D MD – Bribe For: $72,200 – Against: $0
Thomas Carper – D DE – Bribe For: $83,150 – Against: $0
Robert Casey – D PA – Bribe For: $80,576 – Against: $4,600
Saxby Chambliss – R GA – Bribe For: $557,694 – Against: $108,041
Thomas Coburn R OK – Bribe For: $64,400 – Against: $14,200
Thad Cochran – R MS – Bribe For: $50,144 – Against: $22,000
Susan Collins – R ME – Bribe For: $157,438 – Against: $7,800
Kent Conrad – D ND – Bribe For: $41,650 – Against: $29,612
Bob Corker – R TN – Bribe For: $298,639 – Against: $8,850
John Cornyn – R TX – Bribe For: $286,648 – Against: $254,730
Michael Crapo – R ID – Bribe For: $64,199 – Against: $14,350
Jim DeMint – R SC – Bribe For: $149,935 – Against: $5,000
Christopher Dodd – D CT – Bribe For: $36,400 – Against: $4,500
Byron Dorgan – D ND – Bribe For: $28,200 – Against: $6,000
Richard Durbin – D IL – Bribe For: $151,050 – Against: $19,000
John Ensign – R NV – Bribe For: $76,297 – Against: $10,500
Michael Enzi – R WY – Bribe For: $87,394 – Against: $21,450
Russell Feingold – D WI – Bribe For: $53,854 – Against: $2,200
Dianne Feinstein – D CA – Bribe For: $168,189 – Against: 25,314
Kirsten Gillibrand – D NY – Bribe For: $98,210 – Against: $10,650
Lindsey Graham – R SC – Bribe For: $101,272 – Against: $5,700
Charles Grassley – R IA - For: $112,150 – Against: $25,500
Judd Gregg – R NH – Bribe For: $26,000 – Against: $0
Kay Hagan – D NC – Bribe For: $36,250 – Against: $3,500
Thomas Harkin – D IA – Bribe For: $138,135 – Against: $40,600
Orrin Hatch – R UT – Bribe For: $102,215 – Against: $11,600
Kay Hutchison – R TX – Bribe For: $127,811 – Against: $103,386
James Inhofe – R OK – Bribe For: $66,744 – Against: $36,430
Daniel Inouye – D HI – Bribe For: $26,350 – Against: $11,200
John Isakson – R GA – Bribe For: $280,995 – Against: $10,100
Mike Johanns – R NE – Bribe For: $159,259 – Against: $59,785
Tim Johnson – D SD – Bribe For: $26,850 – Against: $15,000
Edward Kaufman – D DE – Bribe For: $0 – Against: $0
John Kerry – D MA – Bribe For: $14,406 – Against: $250
Amy Klobuchar – D MN – Bribe For: $149,778 – Against: $16,250
Herbert Kohl – D WI – Bribe For: $300 – Against: $0
Jon Kyl – R AZ – Bribe For: $363,660 – Against: $58,906
Mary Landrieu – D LA – Bribe For: $73,622 – Against: $2,250
Frank Lautenberg - D NJ – Bribe For: $37,883 – against: $3,550
Patrick Leahy – D VT – Bribe For: $13,800 – Against: $2,750
Carl Levin – D MI – Bribe For: $49,900 – Against: $2,000
Joseph Lieberman – I CT – Bribe For: $121,075 – Against: $0
Blanche Lincoln – D AR – Bribe For: $347,526 – Against: $125,297
Richard Lugar – R IN – Bribe For: $153,579 – Against: $21,000
John McCain – R AZ – Bribe For: $118,070 – Against: $21,525
Claire McCaskill – D MO – Bribe For: $48,950 – Against: $7,650
Mitch McConnell – R KY – Bribe For: $439,593 – Against: $42,244
Robert Menéndez – D NJ – Bribe For: $183,850 – Against: $250
Jeff Merkley – D OR – Bribe For: $27,350 – Against; $3,300
Barbara Mikulski – D MD – Bribe For: $52,165 – Against: $1,000
Lisa Murkowski – R AK – Bribe For: $164,713 – Against: $5,800
Patty Murray – D WA – Bribe For: $136,500 – Against: $3,150
Ben Nelson – D NE – Bribe For: $254,906 – Against: $44,950
Bill Nelson – D FL – Bribe For: $205,471 – Against: $35,748
Mark Pryor – D AR – Bribe For: $115,550 – Against: $16,565
John Reed – D RI – Bribe For: $29,350 – Against: $0
Harry Reid – D NV – Bribe For: $133,985 – Against: $10,000
James Risch – R ID – Bribe For: $56,750 – Against; $36,050
Pat Roberts – R KS – Bribe For: $167,294 – Against: $65,186
John Rockefeller – D WV – Bribe For: $21,250 – Against: $1,000
Bernard Sanders – I VT – Bribe For: $7,800 – Against: $4,200
Charles Schumer – D NY – Bribe For: $175,185 – Against: $14,200
Jefferson Sessions – R AL – Bribe For: $65,303 – Against: $16,800
Jeanne Shaheen – D NH – Bribe For: $17,090 – Against: $7,300
Richard Shelby – R AL – Bribe For: $73,616 – Against: $10,000
Olympia Snowe – R ME – Bribe For: $78,136 – Against: $2,000
Arlen Specter – D PA – Bribe For: $209,124 – Against: $9,400
Debbie Ann Stabenow – D MI – Bribe For: $84,941 – Against: $14,482
Jon Tester – D MT – Bribe For: $21,250 – Against: $61,550
John Thune – R SD – Bribe For: $218,900 – Against: $55,625
Mark Udall – D CO – Bribe For: $34,435 – Against: $45,050
Tom Udall – D NM – Bribe For: $27,102 – Against: $51,900
David Vitter – R LA – Bribe For: $188,225 – Against: $8,500
George Voinovich – R OH – Bribe For: $103,850 – Against: $185
Mark Warner – D VA – Bribe For: $116,450 – Against: $8,600
Jim Webb – D VA – Bribe For: $25,300 – Against: $7,700
Sheldon Whitehouse- D RI – Bribe For: $27,025 – Against: $1,500
Roger Wicker – R MS – Bribe For: $147,650 – Against: $16,250
Ron Wyden – D OR – Bribe For: $58,700 – Against: $4,900
Here’s a list of the Special Interest Groups that support S.510 and how much they bribed (I mean donated) to Senators:
Restaurants & drinking establishments $3,217,767
Food and kindred products manufacturing $1,753,503
Milk & dairy producers $1,717,687
Food stores $1,473,532
Beverages (non-alcoholic) $744,551
Vegetables, fruits and tree nut $709,238
Veterinarians $551,750
Beverage bottling & distribution $289,725
Food wholesalers $284,900
Food & Beverage Products and Services $281,137
Fishing $277,984
Chambers of commerce $219,234
Manufacturing $207,740
Food catering & food services $171,835
Confectionery processors & manufacturers $96,438
Consumer groups $6,100
Farm bureaus $0
Here’s a list of Here’s a list of the Special Interest Groups that supposed S.510 and how much they bribed (I mean donated) to Senators:
Milk & dairy producers $1,717,687
Livestock $1,561,207
Farm organizations & cooperatives $412,976
Consumer groups $6,100
Farmers, crop unspecified $0
I wonder how the Senators will Vote when the bill reaches the floor of the Senate?


DESCRIPTION OF THE FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT

Political Vel Craft
 Veil Of Politics
BREAKING => Senate Bill S 510 Food Safety Modernization Act vote imminent: Cannot Eat Nor Grow Food In The British Monarchy’s Earthly Garden!
by Volubrjotr

(NaturalNews) Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, has been called “the most dangerous bill in the history of the United States of America.” It would grant the U.S. government new authority over the public’s right to grow, trade and transport any foods. This would give Big brother the power to regulate the tomato plants in your backyard. It would grant them the power to arrest and imprison people selling cucumbers at farmer’s markets. It would criminalize the transporting of organic produce if you don’t comply with the authoritarian rules of the federal government.

“It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption offood and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary tonatural law or, if you like, the will of God.” – Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower (http://shivchopra.com/?page_id=2)

This tyrannical law puts all food production (yes, even food produced in your own garden) under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. Yep — the very same people running the TSA and its naked body scanner / passenger groping programs.
This law would also give the U.S. government the power to arrest any backyard food producer as a felon (a “smuggler”) for merely growing lettuce and selling it at a local farmer’s market.

It also sells out U.S. sovereignty over our own food supply by ceding to the authority of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Codex Alimentarius.
It would criminalize seed saving (http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20…), turning backyard gardeners who save heirloom seeds into common criminals. This is obviously designed to give corporations like Monsanto a monopoly over seeds.
It would create an unreasonable paperwork burden that would put small food producers out of business, resulting in more power over the food supply shifting to large multinational corporations.

I encourage you to read more about this dangerous bill at the Food Freedom blog on WordPress: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20
Watch this excellent video on NaturalNews.TV which explains S.510 in more detail:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=9209B
Take action now or lose your right to grow your own food
Sign this petition at Citizens for Health:
http://www.citizens.org/?page_id=2312
Do it today! This is really important.
In addition, the Cornucopia Institute recently sent out an urgent call-to-action email containing the following information: (http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/11/a…)

How to protest Senate Bill 510
1) Go to Congress.org and type in your zip code in the box in the upper right hand corner.
2) Click on your Senator’s name, and then on the contact tab for their phone number. You can also call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator’s office: 202-224-3121.
3) Once connected ask to speak to the legislative staff person responsible for agriculture. If they are unavailable leave a voice mail message. Be sure to include your name and phone number.
Give them this message in support of the “Tester Amendment” which would exempt small farms from S.510:
“I am a constituent of Senator___________. I ask that he/she support the Tester Amendment to the food safety bill. The Tester Amendment will exempt the safest, small, owner-operator farms and food facilities and farmers who direct market their products to consumers, stores or restaurants. Food safety legislation should not create inappropriate and costly regulatory barriers to family farms and the growing healthy food movement in the drive to crack down on corporate bad actors. Please support the Tester Amendment and market opportunities for small and mid-sized family farms, and small food processing facilities.”
You may also wish to explain that you oppose the Food Safety Modernization Act in its entirety, and it is a destructive, freedom-crushing law that will destroy the future of food inAmerica.
Remember, America has already lost control over its money supply to the Federal Reserve (nearly a hundred years ago). America has lost its health due to the medical industry and its profit-from-sickness agenda. Now we may lose our right to grow our own food and save our own seeds if Senate Bill 510 passes.
This is a dangerous, tyrannical law that would thrust the American people into an age of darkness and malnutrition. It would criminalize many of the very people growing our food and turn food production into yet another corporate monopoly.
Please take the time right now to contact your U.S. Senator and voice your strong opposition to this bill.

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Natural News

Obama's True Agenda Exposed

What is his purpose in reading this book??? You decide.
 
If each person sends this to a minimum of 20 people on their address list, in three days all people in The United States of America would have the message.

I believe this is one proposal that really should be passed around.
________________________________________________________________


THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD AND CURL YOUR HAIR!!!!




The name of the book Obama is reading is called: The Post-American World, and it was written by a fellow Muslim. 


"Post"  America means
the World After America!


Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican.

Folks, we need to be aware of what our 'president' is thinking --  or planning.


WE MUST EXPOSE OBAMA'S RADICAL IDEAS AND HIS INTENT TO BRING DOWN OUR BELOVED AMERICA!

PPPPLLLLEEESSSSSEEEE!!!!!!  Please pass this on.......
 
 

Galactic Federation of Light Ships Demonstrate Support Over Media Capital of the World 7/8/12 (Video)

Rumor Mill News Agents Forum
Galactic Federation of Light Ships Demonstrate Support Over Media Capital of the World 7/8/12 (Video)
Posted By: Mr.Ed [Send E-Mail]
Date: Monday, 9-Jul-2012 20:55:34
Galactic Federation of Light Ships Demonstrate Support Over Media Capital of the World 7/8/12 (Video)
Galactic Federation of Light ships fly high over Los Angeles, California, the media capital of the world, in a demonstration of their support and protection of the courageous men and woman of the U.S. media who are encouraged by the people to tear down the wall of the cabal imposed media blackout and break the story of the Earth changing arrests of the members of the criminal cabal.
Breaking news! UFO SIGHTING in HOLLYWOOD 7/8/2012 - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S8gSI09Tmg&feature=player_embedded

Message from the Galactic Federation of Light 7/9/12 'News Flash: Arrests in Full Swing'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysC_QZUcJnM&list=UUM-esfZaFtua8qIijiZUEmg&index=1&feature=plcp

The Galactic Federation of Light discuss the status of the arrests and address the men and women of our media.

Historic Criminal Conspiracy case against the Vatican and Crown of England to be launched in the Fed

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Historic Criminal Conspiracy case against the Vatican and Crown of England to be launched in the Fed

Madame Butterfly's picture
By Madame Butterfly - Posted on 03 July 2012

Exclusive Media Leak: Historic criminal conspiracy case against the Vatican and Crown of England to be launched in the Federal Court of Canada - Class action suit is the first of its kind, aimed at churches, government and big pharmaceutical companies.
Stunning news from Canada reveals an astounding lawsuit to be launched which will reach to the very top of World powers and hold them accountable for crimes against humanity.
"A joint media release by The Association of Citizen Prosecutors (ACP) and The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS was released on July 1. 2012. It announces the first class action lawsuit in Canadian history to name as co-defendants the Vatican, the Crown of England, Canada and its churches, and big pharmaceutical companies, all of which are accused of crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.
The lawsuit is brought by Jason Bowman of the ACP and Rev. Kevin Annett of the ITCCS, on behalf of a group of many others.
“Victims of church, state and big pharma are finally uniting to put an end to their terror” said Kevin Annett today.
“Among other plaintiffs in our class action will be survivors of Canada’s genocide against native people, who have never had their day in court. The whitewash is over. More than 50,000 murdered children will finally be confronting Canada and the Catholic, Anglican and United Church, and placing them all on trial”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFrHXqj4aXc&feature=share
'In an unprecedented case, groups of Canadian citizens have united to bring an ex-parte case before federal court to the international tribunal of crimes of church and state and the association of citizen prosecutors intend to seek direction with respect as to how best to proceed to bring criminal indictments aginst fraternal organizatons alledging their crimes against humanity and the citizens of Canada."
See video (above):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbyFkWS7uM&feature=player_embedded#!
Jason J. Bowman of the Association of Citizen Prosecutors, the group who is bringing the motion forward after months of research and discussion with victims, outlines in his affidavit how these fraternities were formed and their crimes against the indigenous people of Canada.
With the formation of The Indian Act, the systematic genocide and criminal mistreatment of Indian people by the government of Canada became legal under the Dominion of Canada. In his research Mr. Bowman discovered shocking secret connections between the Vatican, the United Church, the British Monarchy, the Freemasons, the RCMP, big pharmaceutical companies and the government of Canada, all of whom are named in the ex-parte motion.
Evidence points to the fact that native children were deliberately exposed to tuberculosis, native women who did not go to church were maliciously sterilized, and thousands of children who were sent to the horrific residential schools were sexually abused, raped, tortured, beaten, used as guinea pigs for testing of pharmaceutical drugs, and even murdered in bizarre rituals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFjCfReaADk&feature=relmfu
Some of the more heinous acts comitted against these innocent native children can be learned in the below radio program Free Think Radio.com, as it aired on CFRA; (warning-extremely upsetting and horrific content)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSdZzz_o3k&feature=related
The Reverend Kevin D. Annett of the ITCCS, The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State at www.itccs.org . speaks of the lawsuit:
"The biggest criminal conspiracy in history is being confronted this week in a federal court house in Toronto.
On Wednesday July 4, our friend and ally, Jason Bowman of The Association of Citizen Prosecutors (ACP), will be filing the first class action lawsuit in history against the Vatican, the Crown of England, the government and churches of Canada, and pharmaceutical corporations for crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.
Anyone who has suffered at the hands of these groups can come forward and join our action.
For instance, for a century doctors and clergy of both the Roman Catholic and United Church of Canada sterilized and experimented on countless aboriginal people – many of them children who died as a result – under agreements with the Crown of England and prominent pharmaceutical companies with ties to the military.
In 1995, when as a west coast United Church clergyman I began to uncover the grisly evidence of such practices as testing drugs for these companies on children at United Church facilities like the R.W. Large Hospital in Bella Bella, B.C., I was targeted for personal and professional destruction by that Church and its friends in government.
Across Canada, there are many such cases of criminal conspiracy to silence the truth and truth tellers. Now, for the first time, there’s a chance for these crimes to be brought to light and those responsible made to publicly account.
That opportunity commences Monday, July 9, when Jason Bowman will argue our application before a Federal Court judge."
http://federalclassactions.wordpress.com/
Full story w. pics and video:  http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12515851-historic-criminal-conspiracy-case-against-the-vatican-and-crown-of-england-to-be-launched-in-the-fe
d


--
 you are love, you are loved, and I love you 

Another one caught with their hands in the cookie jar?

The Rumor Mill News Reading Room 

IOWA FUTURES ACCOUNTS ARE FROZEN AFTER FOUNDER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE IN THE WAKE OF "ACCOUNTING IRREGULARITIES"
Posted By: NaturalWisdom
Date: Monday, 9-Jul-2012 18:26:33

Another one caught with their hands in the cookie jar?
U.S. futures broker = PFGBest
Founder = Russell R. Wasendorf, Sr., who was found in his car near his firm's headquarters and is hospitalized in critical condition in Iowa Hospitals.
UPDATE 1-US broker's funds frozen after founder's suicide attempt
Reuters
Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:11am IST

LIBOR Scandal: The Crime of the Century?

I am sure that this is one grand criminal scam pulled off on the unsuspecting people, but quite frankly I think the Obama presidency is the biggest crime in history! Treason, illegitimate, fraud, lies, drugs, economic disaster.......  

Scheer, in his highlighted description of bankers below as being "a class of thieves", should also include politicians.  Or, as the Economist put it, with "rotten hearts".

LIBOR Scandal: The Crime of the Century?

The latest interest-rate-fixing LIBOR scandal is being heralded as the most egregious in a generation
By Christopher Matthews | @crobmatthews | | 13

 
Image: Former Barclays Bank Chief Executive Bob Diamond leaves after giving evidence to the British Treasury Select Committee in London, on July 4, 2012.
CARL COURT / AFP / Getty Images
Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond leaves after giving evidence to the British Treasury Select Committee in London on July 4, 2012
The 21st has been a banner century for financial and accounting scandals. Enron, the dotcom bust, the subprime-mortgage crisis and the bank bailouts have all contributed to the very low esteem in which the American public holds Corporate America in general, and high finance in particular. So it is no small feat that the latest interest-rate-fixing LIBOR scandal is being heralded as the most egregious in a generation or, as Robert Scheer put it in the Nation, “the crime of the century.”

LIBOR is an acronym for the London interbank offered rate, and it is the average interest rate the world’s largest banks pay when they borrow money. And this figure (or figures, as different LIBORs are calculated for different loan maturities and currencies) is used to price hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of financial instruments, from high-yield corporate debt to student loans.
(MORE: Big Banks Accused of Manipulating Key Interest Rates)

Considering the importance of this benchmark rate and the financial industry’s recent track record, it is no wonder that many in the press are up in arms about Barclays’ recent admission that it intentionally submitted false rates in order to manipulate LIBOR for its own gain. Barclays has been fined more than $450 million by British and American regulators, but it is by no means the only bank thought to have deceptively tried to influence LIBOR — thus the outrage expressed this past week in the media.
Scheer, for instance, pulled no punches in his polemic:
“Modern international bankers form a class of thieves the likes of which the world has never before seen. Or, indeed, imagined … It reveals that behind the world’s financial edifice lies a reeking cesspool of unprecedented corruption. The modern-day robber barons pillage with a destructive abandon totally unfettered by law or conscience and on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend.”
 
So why did traders at Barclays submit false LIBOR figures? There are two ways in which Barclays and other large banks could have benefited. The first is confidence. Two of the safeguards built into the computation of LIBOR are that all the banks’ submissions are public, and the top and bottom four are removed from the calculation. This way no one bank can effectively raise or lower LIBOR in order to profit from prior knowledge of where the rate will be, and transparency will dissuade banks from trying.
But because of the public nature of the submissions, there is a danger that a bank will understate its LIBOR submissions in order to boost markets’ confidence in the institution. This prospect became more likely during the financial crisis, when a bank reporting high borrowing costs could have dire and perhaps fatal effects.

The more pernicious charge is that derivatives traders Barclays, along with several other as-yet-unnamed banks, colluded to influence LIBOR, not so that investors would have confidence in them, but so that they could reap profits on derivatives trades. According to a report in the Economist:
“The sums involved might have been huge. Barclays was a leading trader of these sorts of derivatives, and even relatively small moves in the final value of LIBOR could have resulted in daily profits or losses worth millions of dollars.”

The first contention, that banks were systematically understating their borrowing costs, with the tacit support — as former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond alleged in hearings last week — of the regulators, is a serious one. Those responsible for this behavior should be punished, but future incidents of such behavior could be prevented by merely reforming the way LIBOR is calculated.
The second charge is graver, because it speaks to the moral compass, or total lack thereof, of the world’s financial professionals. Much of the American public believes that financiers are greedy scoundrels who will stop at nothing — including blatant fraud — just to make a buck. This is an oversimplification. Finance is a necessary and societally beneficial industry. But scandal after scandal has proved that the industry’s culture is deeply flawed, and that it has, as the Economist put it, a “rotten heart.”

So is the LIBOR scandal the crime of the century? The full extent of it has yet to be revealed, and if it is discovered that many more banks were lying about the rates at which they were borrowing, or worse, working together to defraud the greater public through LIBOR, then it’s hard to think of a recent corporate offense that’s more troubling. But, more important, the cumulative effect of these scandals is that the public and the government no longer trust the industry to set its own standards for acceptable behavior. Diminished confidence in the financial industry by businesses and the public will retard economic growth generally. And if an industry as vital as finance is unable to police itself, then government has the right — and perhaps the responsibility — to do more policing itself. Unfortunately, the price of that increased regulation, in whatever form it takes, will be borne by all of us.
MORE: The Barclays LIBOR Scandal Is a Clear Case for Greater Consumer Protection

Burma Shave with Statler Brothers


Burma Shave with Statler Brothers
You may need to watch this twice;
Once to watch Burma Shave signs change
and once to catch all pictures, plus listening
to music of The Statler Brothers.
This is really great!
Most Folks under 50 will have no idea what
this is about...Too bad they missed it!!


 



There’s Something Rotten in Banking

There’s Something Rotten in Banking

Barclays Libor Case
Illustration by Bloomberg View
You might have missed the latest bank scandal, the one involving Barclays Plc (BARC), in the hubbub of last week’s U.S. health-care ruling and euro salvage plan.
If so, allow us to fill you in: On June 27, Barclays, the U.K.’s second-largest bank by assets, admitted it deliberately reported artificial borrowing costs from 2005 to 2009. The false reports were used to set a benchmark rate, the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which affects the value of trillions of dollars of derivatives contracts, mortgages and consumer loans. The bank agreed to pay a hefty $455 million to settle charges with U.S. and U.K. regulators, and on Monday its chairman resigned.
Earlier today, Robert Diamond resigned as chief executive officer. Marcus Agius, who yesterday said he would resign as chairman, reversed his decision after Diamond quit and will stay on to lead the search for a new CEO. In an apology to employees before he stepped down, Diamond wrote that some of the misconduct occurred on his watch, when he was head of Barclays Capital, the investment-banking unit. Diamond was already in the doghouse with investors. In April, 27 percent of shareholders, upset that Barclays had missed profit targets, voted down his $19.5 million pay package.
Heads should roll at other banks, too. Regulators and criminal prosecutors, including the U.S. Justice Department, are investigating at least a dozen other firms to determine whether they colluded to rig the rate. Among them: Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS AG.

Bank Bashing

We don’t countenance bank bashing. Nor have we ever called on regulators to bust up big banks. But it’s difficult to defend an industry that defrauds the market with fake interest-rate figures, thereby stealing from other banks and customers.
Sadly, the Libor case reveals something rotten in today’s banking culture. We hope the investigations expose the bad actors, lead to jail terms for those who knowingly manipulated the market, and force out the senior managers and board directors who participated in, or overlooked, such conduct.
Why so exercised? In the Barclays settlement documents, regulators released smoking-gun e-mails that reveal the extent of the dirty dealing between bank traders (looking to protect profits and bonuses) and senior officials in bank treasury units (hoping to convince markets that their banks weren’t in financial difficulty). The two aren’t supposed to collude, but it’s obvious that the Chinese walls between them come with ladders.
Libor and its euro counterpart, the Euribor, are benchmark rates determined by bank estimates of how much it would cost them to borrow from one another, in different timeframes and currencies. The banks submit sheets of numbers every weekday morning, London time. An adjusted average of the rates determines the size of payments on mortgages and corporate loans worldwide. The rates also serve as an indicator of the health of the banking system. Because some submissions aren’t based on real trades, the potential exists for manipulation.
A Barclays banker responsible for reporting borrowing rates was told to make the bank look healthier by not revealing that borrowing costs had risen. An e-mail he wrote to a supervisor confirms that he complied: “I will reluctantly, gradually and artificially get my libors in line with the rest of the contributors as requested,” he wrote. “I will be contributing rates which are nowhere near the clearing rates for unsecured cash and therefore will not be posting honest prices,” he continued, referring to rates in the overnight money market.

Derivatives Contracts

At times, Barclays traders sought to affect rates on dates when interest-rate derivatives contracts settled, thus profiting more from trades, according to documents made public by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of the agencies conducting the Libor probes. Here’s an e-mail about the three- month rate from a senior Barclays trader in New Yorkto the London banker who submitted the rates: “Hi Guys, We got a big position in 3m libor for the next 3 days. Can we please keep the lib or fixing at 5.39 for the next few days. It would really help. We do not want it to fix any higher than that. Tks a lot.”
Bankers submitting rates responded to such requests as if they were routine: “For you, anything,” and “done ... for you big boy,” according to the e-mails. Not that the efforts went unappreciated: “Dude. I owe you big time!” one trader wrote to a Libor submitter. “Come over one day after work and I’m opening a bottle of Bollinger.”
Barclays traders also coordinated with counterparts from other banks. In an instant message, one Barclays trader wrote to a trader at another bank: “If you know how to keep a secret I’ll bring you in on it, we’re going to push the cash downwards. ... I know my treasury’s firepower ... please keep it to yourself otherwise it won’t work.”
The Libor system, overseen by the British Bankers Association, operates much the way it did in the 1980s. Even after the news media uncovered evidence of manipulation in 2008, the bank lobby did little to reduce conflicts or improve the veracity of its numbers. The best solution, as Bloomberg View has advocated, is to end Libor and create a benchmark using data from actual loans, rather than relying on banks to tell the truth about their borrowing costs.
The real tragedy of the scandal is the apparent lack of ethics or self-restraint among the people involved. Following billions of dollars of trading losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s out-of-control London unit, the latest installment of big-bank follies offers yet more proof that the industry shouldn’t be trusted to regulate itself.
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